Depicting facts & figures about the world with interactive maps

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Tag Archives: Google Map

If you are interested in hipster, and is living in / going to Melbourne, you must not miss this interactive map, which has pinpointed around 150 locations that hipsters can visit in Melbourne (include restaurants, cafes, bars, boutiques).

You can mouse click the icons to see basic information in the popup box.

Women’s safety is always one of the important issues in India, and now you can help to improve the situation by using various crowdsourced maps.

The above crowdsourced map displays all reported sexual harassment and abuse in public areas in India, and welcome anonymous reports from map users. Map users can mouse click the inserted link “More Information” for the full story, and leave comment for it.You can filter the pins on the map by selecting specific categories in the legend.

There are many ways to contribute the map, for example buy using mobile app, sending an email, filling the form on the website, or even sending a tweet with hashtag (#pinthecreep / #safecity).

Another crowdsourced map, HarassMap-Mumbai, is specifically for citizens in Mumbai. Similar to the previous one, map users can see more information by clicking the inserted URL, can filter pins by clicking selection in the categories legend, and send report to the map administrator. However, this map supports an additional feature, timeline.

Map users can filter data by selecting specific period, and currently the time frame is from August 2013 to January 2014.

Some may think these maps could not really help to reduce the sexual harassment nor make the regions safer,but the ultimate purpose of these maps is to encourage women to speak out and flight for their rights.

However, these maps are not comprehensive enough as the maps depend entirely the number of people with access to the internet, or use smart phone, and it needs time for approval before showing the location on the map.

This interactive New Jersey map is created based on data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, averaged for the years 2008-2012, and shows the most common ancestry by municipality. According to the map, over 40% of population is originated from Italy, Ireland, and Germany, and only Peapack and Gladstone borough’s dominant ancestry are Americans.

According to the Census, there are around 1.5 million of New Jerseyans are of Italian heritage, 1.3 million are of Irish heritage, and more than 1 million are of German heritage. Different counties have various dominant ancestries, which the countries have been highlighted and grouped on the map that map users can check for the map legend for indication.

There are both mouseover and mouse click events for each county that map users can see detailed statistic by clicking the region.

Mapping SkillsSimilar custom maps could be easily created in following steps:

According to the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Dlacery Index 2013, there are nearly 30 million slaves in the world, and almost 60,000 of them are living in the U.S. Here is an interactive world map about the index.

According to the Walk Free, slavery defines as one of the following: human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and the sale or exploitation of children including in armed conflict.

The index ranks 162 countries based on a combined measure of three factors: estimated prevalence of modern slavery by population, a measure of child marriage, and a measure of human trafficking in and out of a country.

The index is mapped into two maps: an interactive heat map & an interactive bubble chart. In the heat map, country with higher slavery prevalence is highlighted with darker red while country with lower slavery prevalence is highlighted with yellow. Map users could see details of each country by mouse clicking the region, or select specific category in the category legends.

In the bubble chart, countries are being plotted on the chart according to their prevalence rank vs human development index/financial service index/corruption index. However, there is no popup box of each bubble for detailed information, and no map legend to indicate various bubble sizes that a bit confuse the map users.

According to the index, 10 countries with the highest prevalence of slavery are Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Moldova, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Gabon. Among all the above mentioned countries, India has the most slaves in the world, with an approximated 14 million.

However, even countries like Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom rank 160 in the index, it does not mean these countries are slavery free, for example, it is estimated there are between 4200 to 4600 “slaves” in the UK.

Map Review: 4.5/5 Stars
We love this map as the map design is simple but informative with clear instruction and indications for users to filter related information in seconds.
There are just minor suggestions to the bubble chart:

Alternatively, showing data of each country with bubble can be presented on the world map rather than on the chart. Bubble chart map can be easily created in mapping software that you may take following video for reference:

According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), it’s estimated 500 soccer fields of forests are lost every minute. WRI cooperated with about 40 organizations, and has created the following Global Forest Watch (GFW), an online forest monitoring system, to see where are we losing the forests in real-time.

You can see related data by selecting specific items in the category legends, for example see the forest changes, forest cover (heat maps), forest use (e.g. logging/mining/oil palm). Using this map, we could track the effects of using forest illegally, for example the illegal gold mining in Peru’s Amazon.

Maybe you are the one who always dozing in history lecture, you may find “history” can be presented in a more vivid way by using interactive maps / graphics. Here we have found an interactive world map about human genetic history, and let’s start our history lecture now!

The genetic map is created by researchers from Oxford University and UCL that lists detailed genetic history of 95 different populations across the world that we can see genetic impacts of European colonialism, the Arab slave trade, how Silk Road mixing population, and more. Simon Myers of Oxford’s Department of Statistics stated that DNA tells stories of humanity’s past, and most of the their genetic observations match with historical events, for example Hazara people of Pakistan are partially descended from Mongol warriors, which matches with the finding that Mongol DNA entering the population during the Mongol Empire.

There are category legends for you to find information by historical event or population, or you can mouse click the icons on the map to see detailed information in the popup information column.

There is a minor design that we like, the scale line acts like a time line that it will indicate the time frame of the selected historical event.

Last summer, we have shared an interactive U.S. map about how green each state is. After a half year, we find another U.S. map about energy, U.S. Energy Mapping System, that pinpoints various power plants across the States.

Since the map displays all the data in default, it may takes time for loading, and it is also messy for searching related information. Fortunately, the map provides category legend for filtering that you can make the map more simple and neatly by disabling unrelated layers. Though category legend is provided, you may still be confused by the long list of legend items. We suggest you to remove all the layers first, and then check specific items in the checkbox for better filtering.

Similar to majority of interactive maps, additional information of each power plant (e.g. plant name, plant code, utility name, summer capacity) can be seen in the mouse click boxes.

There is an interactive map for homicide reports in Los Angeles County that any death deemed a homicide by the coroner’s office will be included in the report.

This interactive report is a clustering map that map users can zoom in the map by clicking the bubble. Detailed information of the individual homicide (e.g. report of the case, updated news of the arrests, and court trials) can be seen by selecting a specific point on the map.

Heat map overlay is also applied on the map for highlighting regions in various homicide levels.

Since 2007, 33% of the deaths in L.A. come from the African American community that gun violence accounted for 74% of it. (We have previously shared another U.S. map about gun violence.)

Map Reviews: 4/5 Stars
This interactive map is very informative and user-friendly that provides detailed information for individual case on a neat and simple interface. Clear and simple interface are key elements when creating a map, and here are some highlights for this map:

The annual Australia Day is coming next week that it is time for Australians to celebrate it with family and friends. The following interactive Google Maps has pinpointed various celebrations in New South Wales. Check out the details by clicking the stars.

Recently USA is being affected by the polar vortex, and regions like Central Pennsylvania is under winter storm warming. For checking the updated snowfall and temperatures, residents may refer to the following interactive snowfall report that created by National Weather Service.

Residents can mouse click the points for details in the popup box, or look for the information in the marker list.